MOVING DAY, launch interview & GIVEAWAY!

TOOT TOOT! That’s me tooting my own horn. Because a pretty fabulous new picture book has just been released, and I was fortunate to be part of it.

MOVING DAY, is written by the talented author, Teri Roche Drobnick, and is her picture book debut. I thought I would ask her some questions and she can ask me some, too. Like a written, “in conversation with”.

JBR: Hi, Teri, please tell us what MOVING DAY is about, and what inspired you to write it?

Hi Jennifer, thanks so much for asking me to participate. I can’t wait to see our book on Picture Book Builders. MOVING DAY was inspired by the real-life Victorian Englander house that was moved six blocks in San Francisco in 2021.  A friend of mine texted me the newsreel of the move and said, “This would make a great picture book.” The video was impressive—I was immediately engaged and started scouring the internet for news about the house. By that afternoon, I had written my first draft! 

When I began the writing process, I tried to think about what would make this story more kid-friendly to appeal to the target age of picture book readers. That’s when I thought of telling the story from the house’s perspective. I tried to think about how frightening it would have been to be taken from the spot where the house resided for over 100 years and tugged down the street as everyone watched. The real-life story aided in the writing, as workers had to trim trees, remove street signs, and stop traffic to make way for the house as it was slowly pulled down hills and around corners. All this was incorporated into the story. Telling the story from the house’s perspective I was able to incorporate the fears and anxieties that can accompany moving.

TRD: Jennifer, I would love to hear what your first thoughts were when you received the manuscript from Margaret.

I absolutely loved this character. You infused the house with personality and took the reader along on her worried journey. I immediately started to plan ways to bring her to life and give readers an emotional attachment to her. I was, and still am, very ‘moved’ by the message in the book. Moving can be difficult for anyone, especially a large Victorian house! It’s an important topic that many kids and families can relate to.

JBR: Teri, this being your first picture book, were there any unexpected surprises in the book-making process?

The length of the publication process was unexpected for me. Since this is my debut book, I had no idea how long this could take. I signed the contract in 2021 and the book is not coming out until March 11, 2025. It has been an agonizing wait, but the finished product is well worth it.

But my biggest surprise was when I saw your illustrations of the house for the first time. The house had legs! I never would have thought of the house having legs, even though I had personified her. I love the striped stockings and boots. When our editor Margaret Ferguson first recommended you for the illustrating, she said that she thought you were the perfect fit. I went online to further examine your work, and I fell in love. Pen and watercolor are my favorite medium, and the colors and whimsicality of your work was the ideal marriage for my story. But when I saw the completed illustrations of MOVING DAY, I got goosebumps. Your work exceeded my expectations, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

TRD: So, my question to you, how did you come up with the idea of the legs?

Ha! Well… I knew that I didn’t want to draw a lot of trucks and make it a book about the technical side of moving a house. My biggest challenge was to anthropomorphize her in a way that she still felt like a realistic house, but had enough human qualities that a child could relate to her. I also wanted to avoid making her too cartoony and cliché. I had to stand my ground a bit for her legs, vine arms, and carpet bags. I’m happy that those ‘appendages’ have been well received. Because you, Teri, cleverly have the house narrating, I felt that she needed to visually have some unexpected human attributes to support that. I even built a model of the house to help me with perspective when I drew her.

JBR: Teri, You have done a marvelous job of infusing many layers to this story that I know will resonate with young readers and the adults as well. What are you hoping that people will take away from the book?

Moving can be difficult. My daughter did not want to move at the age of five. We only moved around six blocks (similar to the house in the story), but she was attached to the spot where we lived. My father, in his early eighties, was resistant to moving from our family home where he had raised us kids and resided for fifty years. So, moving can be stressful for both children and adults. However, any kind of change can also be positive. Moving can strengthen family bonds and teach children how to cope with new situations, how to be flexible, and how to make new friends. All this can lead to self-confidence.

JBR: Thank you so much, Teri, for writing this important and endearing book. And, for allowing me to be a part of it. Thanks too, to Margaret Ferguson, our editor, for putting us together and to Holiday House for publishing MOVING DAY. 

GIVEAWAY! Teri will be sending a book signed by both of us to one person who comments on this blogpost (within US only). The winner will be announced in my next post on Tuesday April 29 (note that I’ve switched usual time slots with Rebecca).

Thanks to all of you for coming to our launch, and we hope you love MOVING DAY as much as we do!

To learn more about Teri Roche Drobnick, please visit her website at https://www.teridrobnick.com where you can find lots of interesting links about house moving as well as related activities!

More information about me can be found on my website and I also have some fun MOVING DAY coloring and activity pages to download and print https://www.jbreinhardt.com.